The Waiting Game

Hospital waiting rooms are always portrayed as these grim, sterile places where no one is ever happy. Every TV sitcom, every movie, every book description is usually the same.

But I find them to be completely the opposite of all these things. For one, they're not very sterile. Anything you've never had before, you can catch in a doctor's waiting room. That's why I find it ridiculous when the doctor advises you to not go anywhere or hug people because who knows what you might catch when your immunity is low, but it's quite alright to wait outside his office with a bunch of sick people for about an hour or so, which is more than enough time for the germs to get anywhere they want to.

But more importantly, I've had some really good times in hospital waiting rooms. Last year, I spent a fair amount of time in them, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. My mother was usually with me on these occasions, and we were periodically shushed for making too much noise while giggling away at ridiculous jokes that no one else found funny.

It's also a great place to watch people. I don't mean in the creepy-stalker way, but in the observing-human-nature-at-its-finest way. I've watched the old south Indian couple with 'arranged marriage' written all over them sit quietly in their seats, not a word spoken between them for more than half an hour. But then he takes her elbow to steady her when she walks with halting steps towards the doctor's office. The parents with anxiety written all over their faces, who manage brittle smiles and casual conversation to keep up appearances for their five year old with cancer. They never realise the kid knows exactly what is going on, he told me all about it while we were waiting together for our tests.

My favourite is always the sick parent accompanied by a child. There's always an air of 'This is wrong! It should be the other way around'. I remember one young woman crying bitterly while her mother underwent her radiation session, saying "This is not the way it should be". But when is it ever the way it should be? We're all meant to be hale and hearty forever! Until reality sets in anyway...

I've never been one to strike up conversations with random strangers, but my mother will go all out to talk to whoever looks even the teeniest bit friendly, and sometimes even when they don't! So we've met old people, young people, couples, widows, children, rich folk, the middle-class, eternal optimists and those who are just about ready to throw in the towel.

It may have been many things; but for my mother and I the waiting room was never unhappy, never grim and never, ever boring.